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Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

AGRA's Soil Health Program

New life is coming to Africa’s degraded soils. Across the drylands of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger smallholder farmers are combining the use of fertilizer microdosing and techniques such as crop rotation with legumes to improve yields by up to 130 percent. The AGRA-funded program is environmentally sustainable and economically affordable to the hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers who stand to benefit. It is a vivid example of the critical importance of soil health to Africa’s Green Revolution.

Africa’s soils are in trouble. Continuous farming without replenishing soil nutrients has depleted three-quarters of farmland. Without access to fertilizers and organic matter in adequate amounts, farmers’ yields have long stagnated. The resulting push to clear new lands for agriculture threatens biodiversity and destroys tropical forests. Thus, restoring soil fertility will allow Africa’s smallholder farmers to grow more food on existing farmland and to protect a vital natural resource.

AGRA is addressing this need through its US$180 million Soil Health Program, launched in early 2008. It aims to regenerate 6.3 million hectares of degraded farmland over 10 years through balanced, integrated soil fertility management. This will benefit an estimated 4 million rural households--about 24 million people.

To reach this goal, AGRA’s Soil Health Program operates four sub-programs:

  1. Fertilizer Supply;
  2. Soil Health Extension;
  3. Soil Health Research;
  4. and Soil Health Training.

 

Our integrated approach to soil health:

  • Develops Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) practices for a range of crops. ISFM applies local farming methods and conservation agriculture to make the best possible use of fertlizer and organic inputs; ensure sustainable use of soil and water resources; and make soil a more effective carbon sink contributing to the mitigation of climate change;
  • Increases farmers’ access to affordable and appropriate fertilizers through regional fertilizer procurement; developing African fertilizer manufacturing capacity; and strengthening fertilizer distribution systems through support to thousands of agro-dealers;
  • Maps soil conditions across Africa, and generates location- and crop-specific information about soil health and needs;
  • Trains PhD and M.Sc. soil scientists, lab technicians and extension staff in soil health, to lead the future of soil science and development in Africa.

Early Accomplishments (September 2009) and Future Goals:

The Soil Health Program has helped create a continent-wide African Soil Information System, and is supporting widespread use of Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM), which uses both organic and inorganic fertilizers and environmentally sustainable cropping systems such as minimum tillage. Our accomplishments and on-going work includes: promoting fertilizer micro-dosing to 295,000 farmers across 150,000 hectares in semi-arid lands of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; supporting Uganda’s National Agricultural Research Organization to develop region- and crop-specific fertilizer recommendations that will enable smallholders to use fertilizer efficiently and effectively; developing integrated systems to rebuild acidic soil on smallholder farms in Kenya’s western region.

Over the next five years, AGRA and its partners aim to:

  • Invest in the research and development of ISFM practices in maize, sorghum, rice, cassava, wheat, grain legumes (beans, soybean, chickpea, Pigeon pea, groundnuts, and cowpea) and promote conservation agriculture in all production systems.
  • Create several regional procurement mechanisms for bulk purchasing of fertilizers, reducing costs by at least 15 percent.
  • Begin work on at least two African fertilizer production and blending plants.
  • Strengthen fertilizer distribution systems through training and financial support of thousands of village-level agro-dealers in 10 countries.
  • Train 30 to 40 PhD, 120 M.Sc. scientists, 1,000 lab technicians and 3,000 extension staff in soil health disciplines, to lead the future of soil science and development in Africa.
  • Develop a globally integrated African Soil Information Service that will help improve fertilizer use recommendations in 42 countries.

 

AGRA’s Soil Health Program is a key part of our comprehensive approach:

  • Ensuring environmental sustainability: Improving soil health is at the heart of an environmentally sustainable African Green Revolution and key to farmer’s efforts to adapt to and mitigate climate change.
  • Spanning the agricultural value chain: Improving soil health will enable farmers to realize the full benefits of improved seeds, and double or triple their yield.
  • Encouraging investments in infrastructure: Improving farmers’ access to fertilizers requires building roads, storage facilities and other infrastructure that will strengthen the entire agricultural system. AGRA is engaged in partnerships that make such investments.

 

AGRA’s Soil Health Program builds on commitments from African heads of state, whose 2006 Abuja Declaration called for improving fertilizer access on small-scale farms; promoting locally-adapted fertlizer manufacturing; establishing financing mechanisms for fertilizer procurement; and eliminating taxes and tarifs on fertlizers across African borders.

Find out more about these and other Early Accomplishments.

Soil Health Facts

  • Extensive degradation: Nearly three-quarters of Africa’s farmlands are depleted, keeping yield at one-quarter the global average.
  • Tropical deforestation: Driven in part by soil depletion and agricultural expansion, tropical deforestation in Africa occurs at roughly four times the global average, and claims nearly 1 percent of forests every year.
  • Use, cost and access to fertilizer:
    • African farmers use an average of 8 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare, compared to a global average of more than 100 kg/ha. The goal is to reach at least 50 kg per hectare by 2015.
    • Fertilizer in Africa can cost 2-6 times the global average. Poor transport, low trade volumes, and lack of local production contribute to this high cost.
    • Farmers may have to travel up to 50 kilometers by foot or bicycle to reach a distributor--who may not have the quantities or combinations that make sense for a small farm.
  • Acidic soil: In some countries, soil acidity reduces yield by up to 30 percent and crops receive little benefit from standard fertilizers. Access to lime could fix this problem.